Jeffrey S. Porter

Jeffrey S. Porter is a US Army Captain serving in Afghanistan who wrote an email claiming that US Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama had "blown off" soldiers during his tour of Afghanistan in July 2008 [http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/afghanistan.asp Snopes article on the Porter email] .

In the email, Porter claimed that as "the Soldiers where (sic) lined up to shake his hand he blew them off and didn't say a word as he went into the conference room to meet the General. As he finished, the vehicles took him to the ClamShell (pretty much a big top tent that military personnel can play basketball or work out in with weights) so he could take his publicity pictures playing basketball. He again shunned the opportunity to talk to Soldiers to thank them for their service."

The email was sent to Porter's wife, who forwarded it without deleting his details.

After the Army refuted the accuracy of the account of the Obama visit and a Department of Defense video showing Obama having breakfast with soldiers was released, Porter was forced to retract his words [http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/07/Military_blog.Obama_072508w/ Army Times article on the retraction] . "I am writing this to ask that you delete my e-mail and not forward it, after checking my sources some of the information that was put out in my e-mail was wrong. This e-mail was meant only for my family. Please respect my wishes and delete the e-mail and if there are any blogs you have my e-mail portrayed on I would ask if you would take it down too," he said in an email to the "Army Times".

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